Thanks Mitchel and everyone. And Benny, I already had the flood of orders with 9 calls by 8am this morning plus the online orders. I had to quickly update my pages and my voice mail greeting to ask everyone to go directly to my web site to order as I could not keep up. This was especially critical as I was already near selling out and didn't want to over-sell. Nothing like a grumpy chestnut addict. lol Anyway, early this afternoon I did sell out. Despite the economy being in the tank, the pace of my sales were 40% ahead of last year.
Mitchel, those chestnut sold at your farmer's market in Santa Monica and mentioned in the article appear to be grown by someone near Fresno who I'm not familiar with. I know most chestnut growers in the country (I'm a past president of a national grower's association), but wonder if they're renting an orchard that used to be operated by an elderly couple in Visalia.
You've got a class act with Russ Parsons being a food reporter for the LA Times. Honestly, he's the most knowledgeable reporter I've spoken to when it comes to farming, crops, etc. He was listed in the Who's Who of food reporters earlier this year and was a pleasure to visit with when he came during chestnut harvest last month.
The only correction I'd possibly note is the production figure is the minimum I expect from my top-worked orchard here at my home place in 3-4 years. I'm also growing chestnuts at another location about an hour southeast of me.
I believe there are many opportunities for people such as this. Many people produce things that are already heavily produced here or where they are looking to export their product. We import the vast majority of chestnuts consumed in the U.S. People often as me with a puzzled look "is the chestnut market very large???". I always answer the same: "the chestnut market is small but competition in the U.S. is much smaller." Transportation costs will become increasingly important over the years ahead and we have a big advantage with some domestic products. The USPS Flat Rate boxes have also been a tremendous help to our business (the introduction of the Large Flat Rate box greatly increased the number of 20 pound orders I received this year).
Thanks again for the congratulations, etc.!
Harvey
tired, not retired